Josh Ford

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-017
9/29/15
Reflection
After writing my first draft of my inquiry proposal I feel like I have written a good first draft and
have a good starting point to expand and write more on. I have left myself at a good stopping
point and I know I will be able to write more on this topic in the future. At first I was concerned
on how I was going to be able to write 8 to 10 pages on this but now that I have started I know I
will be able to do it. The only thing I am concerned about is staying on topic of just sleep
deprivation and not getting into talking about sleep in general. I decided on this topic in class
when one of the groups used this topic as one of their examples and I knew I wanted to write on
it when I heard it. I always complain of how tired I am and how I dont sleep enough so I felt like
this was perfect to write on.

Sleep Deprivation
As a college student you learn from the beginning that your sleep schedule is going to be
much different than it was your whole life. When youre younger you go to sleep around the
same time every night and wake up the same time to go to school, and even when youre older
you do the same but for work. College is the first time when everyone is on their own and makes
their own decisions on a day to day basis. Sleep seems to be one of the biggest adjustments

people have to make at this time. Everyone is always up doing something together really late and
then waking up early to make their classes, relying on many naps to just make it through the day.
I have personally been through this in all my years of college and continue to do so. I always
hear about the importance of sleep and how we need to get so many hours a night to function
properly, but have always ignored it and figured I would be okay, even though I could feel
myself struggling from day to day to stay awake and maintain a positive mentality. Since I go
through this every day and have experienced it my whole life, I decided I am going to write my
inquiry on the effects of sleep deprivation. As I mentioned earlier I have always heard how we
need to get a good nights rest and how not getting enough sleep each night is not good for our
health so this led me to this question: what effect does sleep deprivation have on people?
Sleep in general has had countless studies done and numerous experiments on it to try
and understand it better. Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders have been the main focus on most
of the research done. I have done a lot of reading and researching to know that this topic is
researchable. I can recall learning about this topic in my past psychology classes and how sleep
deprivation can have many major consequences. Not sleeping enough and not sleeping well each
night are two factors that go into sleep deprivation which will indeed effect your health,
performance and safety. There isnt one main known cause of sleep deprivation, but many
different reasons. For example, just stressing on things that occur during the day hinders our
ability to sleep well at night and staying up later to work or do something else causes us to lose
sleep. We may also have medical or mental-health conditions that disrupt our sleep, and be well
aware that we are sleep-deprived. For the most part sleep deprivation is very often due to
unrecognized sleep disorders. After a typical night's sleep, you may not feel restored and
refreshed and be sleepy during the day, but be completely unaware that you are sleep-deprived or

have a sleep disorder. People think a lot of the times that, its just the stress from the day, or they
might have always felt that way and had no idea that they should feel differently. This lack of
awareness mixes the consequences, because so many people remain undiagnosed for years. Sleep
deprivation causes major reductions in performance and alertness. Reducing your nighttime sleep
by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime
alertness by as much as 32%. Sleep deprivation also impacts your memory and cognitive ability,
and it causes decreased alertness. It also causes stress in relationships, poor quality of life, and
occupational or automobile inury. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) estimates that each year people driving while tired is responsible for at least 100,000
automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities. With all those negative effects, many of
the disorders that cause sleep deprivation go away after risk assessment, education, and
treatment, memory and cognitive deficits improve and the number of injuries decreases. In the
long term clinical consequences for untreated sleep deprivation is large and associated with many
serious medical illnesses. Some of these medical illnesses include: high blood pressure, heart
attack, heart failure, stroke, obesity, psychiatric problems, ADD, and mental impairment to name
a few. Studies show an increased mortality risk for those reporting less than either six or seven
hours per night. One study found that reduced sleep time is a greater mortality risk than smoking,
high blood pressure, and heart disease. Sleep disturbance is also one of the leading predictors of
institutionalization in the elderly, and severe insomnia triples the mortality risk in elderly men.
Sleep deprivation and sleep in general, has a long history and has been looked into since
ancient Greek philosophers and scientists. Early writings on the subject amounted to little more
than just estimation, and in terms of scientific understanding, the mechanisms of sleep remained
largely unknown until the advances of the mid-20th Century. Since then, our understanding has

progressed largely, although there still remains some work to be done. An example of research
done on sleep and sleep deprivation is in 450 BC when Ancient Greek physician Alcmaeon
produces the earliest documented theory of sleep, describing it as a loss of consciousness as
blood retreats from the surface of the body. This just shows how important and mysterious sleep
is, that it has been looked into and studied as early as any other experiment. In 1925, Russianborn American Nathaniel Kleitman opens the worlds first sleep laboratory at the University of
Chicago, where he would go on to research circadian rhythms, sleep and wakefulness regulation
and sleep deprivation. This opened up a whole new world for research and learning about sleep
since they had a laboratory for patients to sleep at and study overnight.
This inquiry question is not only important to my classmates, but to everyone in this
world. This question and topic pertain to everyone since everyone sleeps. Every person has
experienced a night where they couldnt sleep or didnt sleep that well and know how they felt
the next day, which was not in a positive way. If everyone knows the importance of getting good
sleep and knows the danger of sleep deprivation, then they will take their sleeping patterns more
serious and will put in more of an effort to get good rest. In return, everyone that does this will
become healthier and feel much better, which will also result in better performance in school.
This is also important for my classmates to know because some of them may be suffering from
sleep deprivation and not even know it. After hearing about this and the information they may be
able to realize that their lack of sleep is why they are feeling bad and will be able to fix it to feel
better.
Before researching and reading about sleep deprivation I didnt know too much. I have
heard of the name before and knew it wasnt a good thing but didnt know the specifics, I also
heard of sleep disorders but didnt know all about them either. I always knew the importance of

sleep because my whole life I was told by my parents that I needed to get good sleep to grow and
be healthy, and they always said it was essential but I didnt know how crucial it was. I was also
told by teachers to get good rest before tests and coaches always reminded us the importance of
rest for the body. Another reason I knew about sleep and they body is because my dad had
sleeping problems and had a sleeping test done on him which helped him learn a lot of
information on sleep and some of the information was relayed to me. For more information I just
need to continue to read about sleep itself and sleep deprivation. I can look at different
experiments and tests done on people to find out additional information. I hope to learn enough
about to sleep to be able to better myself and inform everyone reading the importance of sleep. I
chose this as a wakeup call to myself because I know I dont sleep enough or get good sleep so I
hope this motivates me to change it.